Cal State L.A. Awarded $300,000 Three-Year NSF Grant

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently awarded a three-year grant of $300,000 to California State University, Los Angeles for a project entitled "Science Technology Engineering Program (STEP) Up for Youth--ASCEND."

The award, effective October 8, 2001 through September 30, 2004, was awarded under the National Science Foundation's division of Elementary, Secondary and Informal Education. CSU Trustee Professor Jewel Plummer Cobb is the principal investigator of the STEP Up for Youth--ASCEND project at Cal State L.A. Under Dr. Cobb's direction, Jackie Ramos, a Cal State L.A. social work alumna, will manage this project-an outreach effort in the East Los Angeles community at the Centro Maravilla Service Center. The project enables the University to conduct informal science activities in the community for middle school students and their families.

Dr. Cobb began her distinguished career as an academic administrator in 1969. While dean of Connecticut College, she held the post of professor of zoology and continued her oncology research. Between 1976 and 1981, she became professor of biology and dean of Douglass College of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. As president of the California State University, Fullerton from 1981 to 1990, she created the first privately-funded gerontology center in Orange County, established new academic opportunities for ethnic students, and successfully lobbied the California Legislature for new student housing on the Fullerton campus. In commemoration of her achievements at Fullerton, a campus dormitory bears her name. Cobb was a recipient of the 1999 Achievement in Excellence Award by the Board of Trustees of the Center for Excellence in Education. Dr. Cobb was presented the award for her contributions to science and education.

A President Emerita of CSU Fullerton, Dr. Cobb currently serves as a Trustee Professor of the California State University system and is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She has also served on several corporate boards. She was formerly the principal investigator of the ACCESS Center at Cal State L.A., a program designed to encourage economically disadvantaged middle and high school students to pursue careers in mathematics, the sciences and engineering.

For more information on the grant project, call Jackie Ramos at Cal State L.A., (323) 260-2817.